A primary consideration in the design of belt systems for surgical gowns is the ease and convenience of securing the gown in place on the wearer while maintaining sterility of the critical areas of the gown, in particular, the gown front and sleeves. Most surgical gowns have their openings in the back. To don such a gown, the gown is held open and the wearer, facing the solid front portion of the gown, inserts his arms into the sleeves. Rear flaps are overlapped on the wearer's back and are secured in place by a belt system. With back opening gowns, proper sterile technique prohibits a sterile person from reaching behind his back or from touching the rear flaps of the gown or anywhere below the gown's waist. (These areas are considered non-sterile areas.)
Belt systems where one belt totally surrounds the wearer and is tied at about waist level are well known. Examples of such a belt system are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,359,569 issued Dec. 26, 1967, to Rotanz et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,594,818 issued July 27, 1971, to Planner; U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,290 issued Mar. 14, 1972, to Hartigan; U.S. Pat. No. 3,721,999 issued Mar. 27, 1973, to Goya et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,075,716 issued Feb. 28, 1978, to Collins; and assignee's copending application Ser. No. 45,157, filed June 4, 1979, by Bolton et al. One-piece belt systems generally require the assistance of a non-sterile person to wrap the belt around the wearer. A sterile person cannot assist if, as is generally so, one end of the belt is attached to the back flap of the gown, a non-sterile area. For this same reason the wearer cannot self-belt.
Another type of belt closure known in the art is a two piece belt system in which the two belt sections each have one fixed end and one free end. Generally, the lefthand belt section has one end attached to the gown at about waist level at the left front of the gown. The righthand belt section has one end attached near the outer edge of the right rear flap of the gown at about waist level. When the gown is worn, the right rear flap overlaps the left rear flap behind the wearer. The two belt sections are then tied together on the left side of the wearer to secure the gown in place. Examples of this type of belt system are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,935,596 issued Feb. 3, 1976, to Allen et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,977,025 issued Aug. 31, 1976, to R. Horan; U.S. Pat. No. 3,988,781 issued Nov. 2, 1976, to P. Horan; U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,604 issued Apr. 12, 1977, to Welke; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,207 issued Apr. 26, 1977, to Newman et al.
Two-piece belt systems offer an advantage over one-piece belt systems, in that assistance is not limited to non-sterile personnel. Both belt sections are often accessable to the wearer on the front of the gown. A transfer device is usually releasably attached to the free end of the righthand belt section which will be wrapped around the wearer. The wearer can hand the transfer device to either sterile or non-sterile personnel for belting assistance, since the assistant need touch only the transfer device. The assistant walks the transfer device with the righthand belt section attached around the back of the wearer (or the wearer turns to his left) thus causing the right rear flap of the gown to close over the left rear flap. Alternatively, the wearer can self-belt by placing the transfer device on a sterile surface, place a sterile weight on the transfer device, and turn to his left to close the back of the gown. The wearer grasps the righthand belt section, pulls it from the transfer device, and ties the two belt sections together. The transfer device is discarded.
In Allen, both free ends of the two belt sections are held at the front of the gown by a transfer device; the free ends are held separately in two openings of the device. The wearer pulls the left-hand belt section end from the transfer device and hands the transfer device with the righthand belt section attached to the assistant. Because the transfer device is not secured to the body of the gown in Allen, the transfer device and the attached belt sections can swing away from the gown body and thus have a greater chance of contacting a non-sterile object and being thereby contaminated during the unfolding and donning procedures.
R. Horan, P. Horan, Welke and Newman all show the lefthand belt section held by a "tunnel loop" attached to the left front of the gown. This belt section is folded once and the fold is inserted through the tunnel loop so that the fold projects from one end of the tunnel loop and the free end of the belt from the other end of the tunnel loop.
Newman uses a transfer device on the free end of the righthand belt section. The righthand belt section is held in front of the gown by having a loop of the belt section inserted through a tunnel loop on the right front of the gown. Newman thus lacks the convenience of having the two free ends of the belt sections held in close proximity on the front of the gown.
In R. Horan, P. Horan, and Welke the right-hand belt section is folded in a pocket attached to the right rear flap of the gown. In R. Horan and P. Horan, a transfer device is attached to the free end of this belt section and is contained partially in the pocket; in Welke, the pocket is detachable and becomes the transfer device. However, since the righthand belt section is attached to a rear flap of the gown which is a non-sterile area, it would be a violation of sterile technique for a sterile person to assist the wearer with belting of these gowns or for the wearer to self-belt.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel two-piece belt system for surgical gowns.
It is also an object of this invention to provide such a belt system that will help insure that the required sterile areas of the gown exterior are not inadvertently contaminated.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a belt system that is convenient to secure in place with the aid of either a sterile or non-sterile assistant, or to self-belt.